Interview of Chung Hwan Kwak. Mark Bramwell November 3, Foreword

Interview of Chung Hwan Kwak Mark Bramwell November 3, 2016 Foreword When Rev. Kwak, as Chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee for the Asian Football Confederation and Honorary Chairman of the Korean Professional Football League, was invited to a three-day conference on Peace and Sports by the Prince of Monaco, he kindly agreed to meet me to discuss some of the important issues facing the Unification Movement in the present time. The following discourse is based on two days of conversation with Rev. Kwak at the Gesellschaftshaus in Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main on 9th and 10th November, 2013. I took the opportunity to ask Rev. Kwak questions about God s Providence today, the roots and impact the current division in our movement, and about his personal situation. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Rev. Kwak for his many hours of patience as I plied him with endless questions. On a personal note, I wish Rev. Kwak good health, success in his global work, and many hours of happiness with his wife, 6 children and his close-knit clan, which includes 31 grandchildren. Rev. Kwak s words on his background and motivation I spent 55 years of my life following True Father. During that time, I never asked for any missions or responsibilities. However, True Father appointed me as International President and asked me to take responsibility for many other providential projects and organizations. During the central part of dispensational history, which is the world providence centering on the United States, except for True Mother, I was the closest to True Father. I assisted True Father in his worldwide work. Even though I could not fully digest everything, True Father loved me endlessly. I feel deep, eternal gratitude for all the love I received. That love will remain forever, even while the movement is currently trying to erase my memory by deleting my name and every picture of me from Unification dispensational history books. A continental editor has confessed to my staff how tortuous this process is. Even now, the current leadership is bringing two new law suits against me, making a total of five, but my love will never cease. My mission is to testify to True Father s dispensational direction, to testify to his core thought and vision for Cheon Il Guk. The final standard is True Father s words, but the current leadership in their ignorance about True Father s life and mission are foolishly trying to alter his words. My explanations always center upon the Principle and True Father s words. The core question is: How did God work centering upon True Father? True Father s messianic qualification Currently some Unification theologians are teaching that True Father was born as a sort of messianic super-human. Rev. Kwak confirmed what has been known since the early days of our movement: True Father himself did not know that he was to become the True Parent; he was one among many possible candidates from a number of possible nations and the only one who passed all the tests of faith and love. True Father then became a person absolutely unique in history. He became personally acquainted with God, fought alone through countless opposing circumstances, and systematized the truth. It seems like a dream that a human being has single-handedly accomplished these things. As he pioneered the way, True Father was completely alone and could seek no consultation, approval or confirmation in the human world. Without correctly grasping True Father s view of history, we cannot understand the meaning of the present days, nor can we comprehend True Father s vision for the future world. Toynbee, for example, regarded cultural development as the driving force behind history while Marxism believes it is the law of dialectical materialism. True Father s view is restoration, that is, God leads his dispensation. Though Christianity also believes in the dispensational view, True Father s dispensational view is complete from beginning to end: a process of restoration culminates in the realization of God s original purpose of creation. The Christian concept has no clear vision of the ultimate goal, but True Father clearly demonstrates that the Heavenly Kingdom is to be earthly. Yet it is human response that determines the actual details of the progress of God s dispensation. True Father made this discovery and, very significantly, he is the only one in history to have actually practiced it, embodying Heaven s principles. All the while, his environment was against him and no one advised him. While the traditional monotheistic religions have a view of the Messiah as having a super-human nature, True Father regards the Messiah as being the True Parent indeed he has to be so fully human in

order to be our parent. Nevertheless, True Father is not an average human being, but one who fully understands God s purpose of creation and the root of the miserable history of humanity. Through his life of suffering he has loosened the knots of human history; after that, he had to re-settle everything for the future. The parent-child axis is the core of history, but a third party became involved through false love. Thus there are always three parties forming human history instead of the original two, God and mankind. The form of historical development was not altered, but the content changed through the invasion of false love. God must eliminate the unprincipled content and make true love, true life and true lineage sustainable. Satan brought false ownership into history and therefore the solution depends on the effectiveness of indemnity conditions. God s central goal is to re-establish the heavenly blood line. The central person must lay the conditions. But history unnecessarily became continually extended. Heavenly Father could not take care of all history, but had to concentrate on finding one son as a new starting point. Rev. Kwak recalled how he experienced that the Principle is a living thing The Day after my Blessing, True Father announced that we can now give birth to sinless children. But, soon afterwards, he said something that seemed to contradict this: Within three to seven generations, your offspring will be pure. I was puzzled about why we had to wait so long. However, when I started blessed family life, I began to understand. I was a Divine Principle lecturer and knew I must find correct answers. As I learned more about the Principle I realized that it is a thing that has to be practiced and that human responsibility and environment are essential. Satan s activities are amazingly powerful, working through blessed couples bodies without them being aware. I realized I had received the Blessing only by the grace of Heavenly Father and True Parents. This must now be filled with content by accomplishing my own responsibility. Original sin is removed only under the condition of fulfilling human responsibility. This usually takes quite some time. Establishing the True Lineage, True Family and True Tribe Through a painstakingly long process, Heavenly Father had cleansed the lineage before the birth of Jesus Christ. In other words, a child could be born that was outside the realm of Satan s interference. God s core nature is true love, so he wants to create His hyung-sang, His visible self, in order to give that love. The only way is to create His son and daughter centering on true love s original nature. The lineage is essential because true love can be passed on through it. Through true love, true life is born and everything is passed on through the lineage. All the work of restoring the heavenly lineage (the vertical or lineal foundation) was completed in the Old Testament era through such women as Tamar and Mary, culminating in the family of Jesus. Therefore, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, another Jesus-like person (i.e. one who can be freed from Satan s accusation) can be born at any time, provided the horizontal or earthly foundation exists. This horizontal foundation came to exist through the sacrificial offerings in Christians lives and the subsequent worldwide expansion of Christianity into the 20th century. On the foundation of the dispensation with Jesus and the sacrifice of the martyrs, True Father could be born without any special conditions in his lineage. However, due to the unreliability of human beings, Heavenly Father had more than one plan for the birth of His child and was looking at various candidates. As in the Garden of Eden, God could not continually guide humans like operating a robot. God s guidance comes in the form of signs and impulses. Heavenly Father gave many impulses and signs to True Father concerning his mission. If True Father had not caught those signs and responded, as Adam and Eve should have done in the Garden of Eden, he would have failed to qualify himself as Lord of the Second Advent. Heavenly Father has to work personally with the Messiah as well as preparing the environment. Christianity rose to a totally new level of influence after World War II. All people believed that Europe ruled the world not only militarily, but also culturally, economically and religiously through Christianity. After Korea was liberated, that nation truly blossomed. Step by step, True Father became conscious of his mission. He married in 1946 because he believed that God s Providence had now expanded to the worldwide level. That marriage did not happen out of any emotional or human desire. When looking for rice, True Father was guided to Pyongyang by God because that is where God had prepared everything. Unfortunately, the worldwide foundation, painstakingly prepared by God, was wiped out due to the faithlessness of the representative Christians, and True Father went the way of crucifixion instead of glory. After his liberation, True Father did not visit his hometown but instead went to Pyongyang to gather his followers, while everyone else was heading south. You can research the details of True Father s providential course and you will find that God s interests were always uppermost in True Father s thoughts and actions. Sung-Jin Nim was already 6 years old when he was brought to True Father in

Pusan. True Father made every effort to comfort and persuade his first wife to be patient, to give her hope that the time of her happiness would come. When True Father wrote the first version of Divine Principle in Pusan, he had not yet fully grasped his mission. When we consider True Father s situation in the 1950s, the unthinkable happened: his wife deserted him and tried to destroy him and the movement. Though she finally made her peace with True Father and the movement, and is now blessed, that was a process that took many years. In the 1950s there were no prospects of continuing the marriage. According to providential requirements, True Father had to find the True Mother at the very latest until the age of 40. The Marriage of the Lamb that took place in 1960 was, therefore, a last-minute event. As we all know, it took place in a warlike atmosphere, with an angry crowd gathered outside the building, requiring security guards to even enable the ceremony to take place. True Father knew that he had to establish not only a tribe of indirect children, starting with the 36 Couples whom he regarded as Ancestors of Humanity (Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom, page 553), but also his own tribe of physical descendants. True Father believed those physical descendants had to number 12 male heads of tribes. Jacob was the family level messianic figure, that is the first person in human history to escape Satan s accusation, and established the family level tribe with 12 sons through his two wives and (at least) two concubines. Moses established the national level tribal foundation, and Jesus established the world level foundation through his 12 male apostles but only spiritually. A very central concern of True Father was, therefore, how to secure his own descendants to set up the worldwide physical tribal foundation of his direct lineage. In the 1950s, even True Father s physical survival was uncertain; he was imprisoned numerous times. He had to quickly establish the family and tribe of his direct lineage, but the time was not yet ripe for the Marriage of the Lamb because the Caintype tribal level, that is a foundation of believers, was too small. What could True Father do to solve this problem? At some point, True Father realized that he needed 36 blessed couples as Cain-type representatives of his own family, with 12 couples respectively representing past history, the present and the future. Rev. Kwak believes that True Father was hoping for 12 sons of his direct lineage, but later included his own daughters. It would have been ideal if the 12 tribes that Jacob had to establish had originated from one wife, but in the end they were established through four wives. Rev. Kwak said that he did not discuss with True Father any matters concerning the setting up of the True Family and lineage, because Rev. Kwak always considered this to be a matter for parents alone. But he feels certain that True Father never acted without having a reason related to the Providence. We must always bear in mind that True Father was the only one in the position to resolve all major problems of human history. One of True Father s paramount concerns was to make sure that he had enough tribal members. Rev. Kwak firmly believes that we should not interfere in the Parents realm; we should not insist on knowing answers to certain internal questions such as the process of the actual establishment of the True Family. Similarly, we do not know how exactly God gave birth to the one who finally became the Messiah, or the process of the creation of Adam and Eve. Rev. Kwak points out that True Father had never given him the mission of explaining how the True Family and True Tribe were set up. His understanding of the position of the True Family is that they are the first family in history to have attained a position beyond the realm of the Fall and are therefore placed in an elevated realm above the clouds, as it were. Therefore, we should not interfere with what goes on among them. The progress of the Providence centered on True Parents Since no one taught True Father, we must carefully research his life as the standard for grasping God. His life can be divided into three major periods: birth to 40 years of age; 40 to 80 years of age; the period after 80 years of age to his ascension. True Father s 40-year individual course could not be extended beyond that period, so he had to be blessed by 1960. This event began a new era centering on God s dispensational view. The Holy Wedding of True Parents in 1960 was a minimum condition, a cornerstone. The Completed Testament Age should have begun at that time, but it could not begin. My Pledge should have been the family pledge, but it was an individual pledge. For 33 years, until 1993, True Father focused on building the worldwide foundation. True Father remained in the USA for almost 30 years in order to commence the real Completed Testament Age on the worldwide level. In that age, God wants to reach all people, which is why True Father began numerous projects, such as ICUS, cultural projects and the inter-religious activities. In 1992, True Father instructed Rev. Kwak to extend the Blessing to the worldwide level and the Era of the Family finally began in 1994 with the introduction of Family Pledge. A truly ground-breaking event took place in 1996 when, in the presence of 3,000 world leaders, including heads and former heads of state, True Father declared the establishment of the Family Federation for World Peace. He had now risen above the

realm of religion. God s Coronation Ceremony in 2001 marked the final stage in the dawning of the Completed Testament Era; the core meaning of this time is that the Sun has risen: the world is now becoming centered on God as its axis. There should be no sin in this age and we can now lead a life without sin, but this depends on human responsibility. The Era of the Third Adam refers to True Father and True Mother in the realm of the Second Advent. The Era of the Fourth Adam is in the realm of Cheon Il Guk. Though True Father is unique in history as having been the only one until now to have fully embodied the Divine Principle, we can inherit that level of being if we really want to. The Fourth Adam Era refers to True Parents as the first fruits in the Era of Cheon Il Guk; it also refers to us as the next fruits. After 2003 there was a First Israel Coronation Ceremony and a Second Israel Coronation Ceremony. After that, a Third Israel Coronation Ceremony was held in Korea. We must realize that the heavenly concept of kings, queens and coronations has nothing to do with power in the sense of coercion, but is based entirely on natural authority through love. This is why each one of us is supposed to become a king and a queen at least within our own families or tribes. 2013 should have been the time for the Completion Stage Blessing, but this ceremony has not yet been fully actualized. By 1968 God had finally found His own son and daughter, though they were not yet perfect. From 1960 to 1993, history did not vertically progress, but extended horizontally, that is, it achieved a greater foundation. The decade up to 2013 was the time to prepare the substantial national foundation. Hyun Jin Nim as True Father s heir and representative was preparing for this. A wrong turning in the Providence happened in 2009. At that time, True Father appointed Hyun Jin Nim to take full responsibility for North America, but In Jin Nim, with the help of other siblings, rejected Hyun Jin Nim and refused to work under his authority, saying she will only listen to orders directly from the mouth of True Father. My recent personal path A development that gradually separated me from True Parents and isolated them from the world membership was when True Mother cancelled the meetings at True Parents breakfast table. These meetings had always been an opportunity for international leadership to inform True Father about what was going on in the movement around the world. After they ceased, True Father had an even more limited source of information. There remained merely an inner circle, consisting of Peter Kim, True Mother, Kook Jin Nim and a few others. After True Parents had stripped me of all my missions, including my successful national messiah mission to Mongolia, I actually felt lighter and liberated. I continued to attend Hoon Dok Hae every morning as one of the 36 Couples, being there for True Parents if they needed my assistance. I took my position at the front of the hall as a way to maintain my inner attitude of attendance and to remain on the front line as a tribal messiah. However, every day without fail, True Father scolded me severely, but the scolding had no content that I could understand. I began to feel that True Father was unhappy whenever he saw me, so I thought it was better to spare him this vexation. In addition, I myself felt so miserable being chastised for no apparent reason. Furthermore, there were young members from all over the world, and even new members, experiencing an elder being severely chastised. This must have puzzled and unsettled them. So, in December 2009, I finally spoke with Hoon Mo Nim, asking her to please explain to True Parents that, in order to spare them so much displeasure, I will not attend Hoon Dok Hae anymore. I wanted so much to ask True Father what the cause of his anger was, but there was no opportunity for me to have such personal or small group meetings with him anymore. My way was completely blocked. I could only conclude that True Father was receiving false information about me and that some individuals were deliberately turning True Father against me. Despite my deplorable situation, being unable to defend myself or even understand what the issue against me was, I determined not to speak one word against True Father. One critical incident which particularly dismayed me happened at Cheon Jung Gung. It was one of my responsibilities to read out letters from world leaders addressed to True Father. Once there was a longer letter from Hyun Jin Nim as Vice-President of the FFWPU. As I read out the letter, I became very inspired by it because it contained so many good suggestions about how to improve the movement. At the end, True Father seemed disinterested and merely commented, Why does it have to be so long? I looked at him in surprise. True Father then said something which deeply shocked me. He looked up at me and said, Didn t you write that? I was so hurt by this question that I was speechless and unable to reply. Here was I, a faithful follower of True Father for 55 years, being suspected of writing letters signed by his own son. What had made True Father think like this? Who had been poisoning True Father s mind even to the point of mistrusting his closest assistant and his beloved son who carried such heavy providential responsibilities? I usually stayed together with True Father until he retired to his room, but for the first time, I said to True Father that it would be better if I left. As Hyun Jin Nim s father-in-law, I was always in a difficult position when it came to defending him in

front of True Parents and leaders. I just had to remain silent; any attempts to support Hyun Jin Nim would be regarded as partisanship. It was the responsibility of all leaders and True Parents themselves to support Hyun Jin Nim in his difficult missions, not just my responsibility. The current crisis The chaos that has entered our movement began when Peter Kim, a person lacking in experience in the mission field, slandered a True Child, namely Hyun Jin Nim, at an official meeting of world leaders. True Family can be corrected, but they should not be slandered. After Peter Kim slandered Hyun Jin Nim, Hyun Jin Nim s siblings expanded the criticism further. Members felt free to join in too, then True Mother and, in the end, even True Father took a position against his own son. Though Hyun Jin Nim had consistently maintained the same principled standards, alignment to the Providence and righteous activities throughout, Satan had penetrated to the core of the True Family in order to destroy Hyun Jin Nim s person, family and work. What has happened is a tragedy beyond description. True Father never planned to ascend to the spirit world before Foundation Day. The full ceremony could not take place because the foundation for True Father to remain on earth had been eroded. The full Cheon Il Guk Blessing Ceremony must now take place in the Second or Third generation of True Family instead. This is not the only disastrous consequence of what has happened; public opinion in Korea has been poisoned by Hyun Jin Nim s brothers placing evil messages on the internet to turn especially the youth against him. These deeds have not only had the effect of defaming Hyun Jin Nim, but have destroyed the reputation of the movement as a whole. Who can believe in any organization that flays its own leadership? Who can believe in the moral guidance of a family that is so replete with antagonism? The current era and our new responsibility Due to True Father s own effort and sacrificial life, we have been able to come this far. He has brought us safely to the banks of the Jordan River, but we must now cross the river by taking responsibility to do so, and through our own determination. No one can do this for us. We will die in the wilderness if we wait too long on the banks. In the Era after the Coming of Heaven, you can no longer justify your actions with the excuse our leader said. We are in the age when we must cross over the Jordan River and enter the blessed land of Canaan. We must cross spiritually in order to enable Canaan to become a physical reality by having our own nation. Unfortunately, many blessed families are still waiting on the banks, afraid to cross, while others are wading through the waters, but reluctant to emerge on the other side. True Father has told all blessed families that he and God will no longer provide them with manna and quail they must make their own living, both in a spiritual and physical sense. In Canaan, this is possible if only we would turn our minds to it and believe it can happen with God s full blessing and support. Many are clinging to life in the wilderness, waiting to be given sustenance by their leaders, but the reality of that life is now hopeless, with barely enough sustenance from the manna and quail. Even the manna and quail will go and the leaders will have nothing more to feed their members with. All blessed couples should be an example to our neighbors through our own life, approaching people in society through our own initiative, developing our own realm of work. Hoon Dok Family Church and the Family Pledge contain the essence of what our life should be all about. The Family Pledge makes it clear that we are owners; there is no mention of anything like a church; we are to live a positive lifestyle, adapting our lives to the content of Cheon Seong Gyeong and the Peace Messages, giving positive influence to the society and nation. We must always bear in mind that we will never be able to win people to God s side through truth alone. Without true love, we will stagnate and perish. I experienced through my life with True Father how powerful is the force of true love to transform the human heart and the world. Nations will cease to make war on one another, but what will they do with all their armed forces? The project to link Alaska and Siberia through a bridge and tunnel was no mere fantasy of True Father. This connection is needed in order to utilize in a responsible way the vast resources in those regions. The surplus manpower through the redundant armed forces can be used to develop those regions. Many of them are single young men without families; they can serve time doing something more constructive than military activities. True Father is a visionary and, seeing into the heart of the younger generation, realized that they are becoming less interested in theology and ideas and more interested in culture, sports and adventure. Rev. Kwak feels tremendously grateful that True Father asked him to become active in the realm of sport. He had nothing to do with sport until then. In fact, since the 80s, he has had a physical disability in one of his legs which rendered him unable to participate in most sports. Through some astonishing incidences which can only be seen as God s work, he became Chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee for the

Asian Football Confederation, working with the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) with Headquarters in Bangkok. Rev. Kwak was elected three times, serving three terms, as chairman of the Korean Professional Football League. He is now its Honorary Chairman. Our team, Il Hwa, became the best in Korea, winning the championship seven times. Rev. Kwak s own project is to develop the corporate social responsibility of small and medium-sized businesses in Korea by helping them to establish their own service activities. He established the Telefood Project, to which companies donate 10,000 USD and become affiliates. He opened the platform for cooperation with the FAO and work with Global Social Business Partners (see website). He considers all of his work to be the fruit of simply practicing True Father s teachings. The crucial role of True Mother True Mother s greatest accomplishment is her unwavering faith as the spouse of True Father. True Father announced that True Mother had fulfilled all the responsibilities of true daughter, true sister, true wife, true mother and true grandmother. When True Mother is united completely with True Father, she can share in his authority and accomplishments. Nevertheless, there are realms in True Father s life of communion with God in which even True Mother was unable to share. Some members, even an esteemed person like Young-Hwi Kim, are saying that True Father could not have perfected himself without True Mother. This is clearly incorrect. Who gave Hak Ja Han the possibility to fulfil her missions? When True Father was appointed by God to the position of the returning Christ, True Father had to then appoint someone to accomplish Eve s mission. The person True Father originally chose was his first wife, Sun-kil Choi. If she had succeeded, Hak Ja Han would never have become True Mother and the True Children of today would never have existed. In that sense, True Mother is completely dependent on True Father to even be able to enter into the Eve position. When we consider the life of Jesus Christ, it was full of indescribable sacrifice and suffering, as he sincerely dedicated his entire heart, body and soul to the providence of God. That heart of sacrifice became clearly visible to the world when Jesus offered his life on the cross to liberate humanity. Yet it is hard to even begin to imagine the extent of dedication and sacrifice with which True Father led his lonely life on earth. Like Jesus, his life was a living offering for the sake of humanity, but stretching over a ninety-year lifespan. The foundation that God had prepared melted away due to the stubbornness and cowardice of humanity. Like Jesus, True Father had to re-build everything with his own hands, never complaining for one moment. It is hard to grasp how utterly serious the heart of True Father was, how for him each minute was a matter of life and death, while cradling the Universe in his arms. I caught a glimpse into True Father s deadly serious heart and lifestyle and can witness to his spirit: a man trampled upon many times over, rising like a phoenix, while looking into the face of God with the heart of a faithful and yearning child. True Father is complete, whereas True Mother must still work to perfect herself. True Father is also unique because he discovered the secrets of Heaven, indemnified human history and unraveled its knots. His accomplishments are beyond anything that a human being can imagine. For all the above reasons, True Mother s own authority depends on her continued faithfulness to True Father s ideals. If True Mother wishes to continue to respect and honor True Father, she must be in the vanguard to preserve True Father s works, such as the Eight Great Textbooks, instead of changing what he established. In this way, she will naturally gain the respect and support of the members. I have worked side by side with True Father for decades and True Father s thought has become a part of me. It hurts me the most to see True Father s thought being devalued to the level of a mere church or denomination. Members continue to cling to the church concept, instead of being released to participate in the new age. Blessed families continue to be locked into a limited mind-set by an outdated teaching based on leaders, conditions and donations. My second greatest pain is to see True Father s words being brought into disarray by a process of deranging what he put in order while on earth.